For the first time, value of apparel imported by the US in a month from Vietnam exceeded US $ 1 billion, though apparel imports continued to gain steam in July, with India and Bangladesh benefiting most from the increase.
According to data just released by OTEXA, the International Trade Administration’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, total US apparel imports (MFA) increased by 5 percent in the month on a dollar basis and by 7.1% on a square meter equivalent (SME) basis.
Apparel imports from India grew by 7.3% to US $ 325 million in July, bringing the year-to-date total to over US $ 2.3 billion, up 9.6% compared to the same period in 2014. Apparel imports from China rose by 5.1% on dollar basis and 7.8% on SME basis, from Vietnam, it increased by 12.7% year-over-year. While growth in imports from Bangladesh were 3.7% in July at US $ 508 million, giving the country a 8.5% increase year to date, allowing it to edge out Indonesia as the third largest source of US apparel imports, at 6.7% of the year-to-date total.
Sri Lanka has seen its imports to the US increase by more than 16% so to US $ 1.1 billion, and imports from Burma (Myanmar) have increased by more than 130%, to over US $ 14.6 million.